April 27, 2012

Interpol is the international police organization established in 1923. In 2009, its database for Stolen Art was made available to the public. It takes about one to two weeks to obtain permission and a password to access the lists of recovered and stolen art objects.

Earlier this month, police in Serbia recovered a painting by Paul Cézanne that had been stolen from an Impressionist museum in Zurich in 2008. Interpol lists eight stolen artworks created by Cézanne.

Don Hrycyk is the only full-time police officer assigned to investigate art crime and makes up the Los Angeles Police Department's Art Theft Detail. Here is an example of a fake Picasso work and its equally disreputable Certificate of Authenticity from Detective Hrycyk's collection.

Certificate of Authenticity

Picasso

Picasso, Pablo (1881-1970). Born on October 25, 1881, in
Malaga, Spain. Pablo Picasso was
probably the most famous artist of the twentieth century. During his artistic career, which
lasted more than 75 years, he created thousands of works, not only paintings but
also sculptures, prints, and ceramics.
He almost single-handedly created modern art. He changed art more profoundly than any other artist of this
century. First famous for his
pioneering role in Cubism, Picasso continued to develop his art with a pace and
vitality comparable to the accelerated technological and cultural changes of
the twentieth century. Each change
embodied a radical new idea, and it might be said that Picasso lived several
artistic lifetimes. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France at
the age of 91.

“Pour Roby” (Portrait of a Young Man). Plate signed on the
lithographic plate by Picasso and shown in reverse on the printed image.

I am
currently Goldman Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Fine Arts at Georgetown
University, and former Director and Curator of the B'nai B'rith Klutznick
National Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where I curated over 80 exhibitions. I
am also the co-founder and Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project
(“HARP”), and have spent the past 14 years researching and consulting on the
issue of Nazi-plundered art.

In my
capacity as a HARP Director, I respectfully ask that the Senate withdraw
S.2212/H.R. 4086, the “Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
Clarification Act” from any consideration or vote.

The effect
of passing S. 2212 would be nothing short of disastrous for Holocaust survivors
who may have looted art claims, as well as source countries with claims for the
return of looted antiquities and other artworks.

Additionally,
the so-called “Nazi” exception in the bill would exclude all objects obtained
from forced sales or other forms of looting or plunder not executed directly by
Nazi forces, or from forced sales or other transactions apparently legal in
form or purporting to be voluntarily effected, when in fact the intent was to
deprive Holocaust victims of their property, rights and interests in
artworks. Again, such an effect from
this bill cannot be considered acceptable, given that most of the recent looted
art cases involve non-direct acts of looting and dispossession of artworks.

Beyond the
Nazi exception and its exceedingly narrow definition of Nazi-plundered art,
this bill will result in making the coming of all
other kinds of plundered art into the United States immune not just from
seizure, but from being recognized as plundered. In fact, in its most disastrous effect, the bill will allow
every archaeological artifact originally looted, as well as the foreign
government entity attempting to profit from its exhibition in the United States,
to be completely protected from any damage or suit.

Finally,
the narrow focus of the bill to a Nazi-only exception mischaracterizes the
Holocaust: by adopting this bill, Congress will crystallize the Holocaust as an
event specifically Jewish or specifically European, enabling it and the public
to ignore the larger human issue of Holocaust-like events which have taken
place since World War II and the associated large-scale cultural plunder
associated with those events. If
Congress passes S. 2212, it recognizes that the Holocaust is nothing but a
simple historical aberration, enabling all of us no longer to consider the consequences,
costs or risks of persecution and its associated cultural plunder in other
situations. In essence, Congress’ message
in passing S. 2212 is as follows: Nazi looting is not OK, but cultural looting
and plundering in Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cyprus, are all OK, protected
and shielded by the will of the U.S. Government.

Therefore,
I urge you and your committee to withdraw S. 2212 from any further
consideration, review, amendments or vote.

On behalf
of HARP, I thank you for your leadership on this important issue and for your
support. If you have any
questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the address above.

ARCA blog asked Ms. Rossi to translate the first part of the article "Germania e Usa le ultime mete dei bronzetti trafugati" (Germany and the USA are the destinations for looted bronzes) published by Casteddu.online, a daily newspaper in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia.

Forced to emigrate even after two or three thousands years spent in Sardinia: crammed into trucks or inside a bag between trousers and shirts, in the aircraft hold. They make stopovers of four to five years in Switzerland, ‘cause the rest is good (and certainly allows the dust to settle). And then they cross the continents: to the United States or Canada on one side, Japan on the other. This is the clandestine journey of nacelles and Nuraghic bronze statuettes. A new emergency, according to Paolo Montorsi, Commander of the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection nucleus of Sassari, who, during a conference organized by the Carabinieri during the Week of Culture, spoke about this argument.

The phenomenon of illegal excavations has declined compared to previous years, though. “Probably – clarified Montorsi – because the valuable pieces are already gone”. This doesn’t mean the Carabinieri do let their guard down: there’s a new line of investigation, which obviously is still secret, that takes us in Germany and United States. Pieces easy to take away because of their reduced dimensions, but of great value: some of those bronze statues, in the black market, are valued about 20.000€/cm.

In particular, the highest number of illegal excavations is recorded in the area of Nuoro. “It’s very important when a theft is reported – explained Montorsi – to provide a photo of the stolen handwork, so it can be inserted in a database interacting with the Interpol.”

April 18, 2012

Each year, The Association for Research into Crimes against Art honors distinguished and emerging writers specializing in art crime and cultural heritage preservation, inviting them to Amelia, Italy as the Association's annual Writer in Residence. Designed to promote critical and reflective writing and funded by ARCA supporters, The Amelia Writer in Residence Program reflects ARCA's belief that the basis for any critical and comprehensive writing involves the opportunity for contemplation, research, collaboration and support.

By hosting writers in residence, ARCA strives to create an intellectually stimulating home base for an author's literary and research activities. Throughout this residence, the writer spends most of his or her time working on a literary project but also contributes to the intellectual community of ARCA's postgraduate certificate program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. By sharing their scholarship and professional experiences, their presence and contribution has meaningful impact on this specialized didactic program.

The Writer-in-Residence is chosen from candidates proposed by a Nominations Subcommittee, whose members have been selected by ARCA trustees and faculty. The Nominations Subcommittee proposes candidates whose work and character are known to them and selection is made by group consensus predicated on a writer's professional standing in his or her field of specialization. Heavy emphasis is placed on projects that promote and foster interdisciplinary cooperation in art protection and recovery. While in Italy authors are asked to contribute keynote lectures or to present at ARCA's Annual Art Crime conference enriching the dialogue by speaking about their manuscript project or a topic of mutual professional interest to scholars and students in

attendance.

For 2012 ARCA is pleased to announce that our third annual Writer-in-Residence will be Dr. Laurie Rush.

Dr. Laurie Rush has a BA from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, Summa Cum Laude, and an MA and PhD from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where she was a fellow of the University and of the National Science Foundation.

Teams working with Dr. Rush have discovered over one hundred fifty Native American archeological sites on Fort Drum including one dating back over 10,000 years and another documenting earliest French contact in the region. Her research on the possibility for paleo-maritime culture in the Great Lakes has been recognized by eminent archaeologists as having potential for better understanding of the peopling of the Americas. As part of her Fort Drum responsibilities Dr. Rush also established consultation partnerships between the installation and three Haudenosaunee Nations, the Oneida Indian Nation, the Onondaga Nation, and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

Dr. Rush was the Booth Family Rome Prize winner for 2010-2011 in Historic Preservation at the American Academy in Rome. She is also winner of numerous military and collegial awards including the 2007 Chairman's Award for Federal Achievement in Historic Preservation, the 2009 Register of Professional Archaeologists Distinguished Service to the Field, and in 2007 and 2009 Manager of the Best Cultural Resources Program and Team in the US Department of Defense. Dr. Rush also recently served on the American Anthropology Association Ad Hoc Commission on the Ethics of Engaging with the Security and Intelligence Communities.

In 2009, Major General Oates requested that Dr. Rush serve as the military liaison for the successful return of the Ancient City of Ur to Iraqi stewardship, and in 2010, Dr. Rush traveled to Kabul with Central Command personnel to participate in Environmental Shuras and to meet with the Director General of Heritage for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and US State Department officials on behalf of establishing increased awareness and military partnership for preservation projects in Kabul and Mes Aynak. This participation resulted in allocation of over one million dollars by the US Army Corps of Engineers to support artifact conservation at the ancient Buddhist City of Mes Aynek.

As the Director of the In Theater Heritage Training Program for Deploying Personnel, Dr. Rush helped to establish a partnership between the Archaeology Institute of America and the Department of Defense. This project, funded by the OSD Legacy Resource Management Program and implemented in cooperation with Colorado State University, produced archaeology awareness playing cards for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt; Soldier pocket cards in multiple languages; replica archaeological sites for military training; educational presentations for military personnel; Central Command regulations for protection of cultural property, detailed archaeology maps for Iraq and Afghanistan, heritage reference websites for military personnel, and archaeology construction checklists for military engineers. These accomplishments helped to build the US Combat Command Historical Cultural Action Group that is now working at the global level toward improved archaeology mapping for military planning and establishing military guidelines for stability operations in archaeologically sensitive areas. She is also a founding member of the International Military Cultural Resources Working Group that participated in the recent cultural property inspections in Libya.

Dr. Rush is editor of the recently released volume, Archaeology, Cultural Property, and the Military and has an article forthcoming in the journal Military Review that focuses on lessons today's US personnel can learn from the accomplishments of the Monuments Officers of World War II.

We hope the ARCA community will embrace and support Dr Rush as this year's invited Writer in Residence.

On April 13, 2012, Art Hostage, a blog on art theft, re-printed an article about the recovery of a stolen Cézanne painting in Serbia, then added comments he attributed to Richard Ellis, founder of the Art and Antiquities Squad at The New Scotland Yard, that accused Serbian police of corruption.

The Boy with the Red Waistcoat was one of four paintings stolen from the Foundation E. G. Bührle in Zurich in 2008. [You may read about it here and here on the ARCA Blog).

The ARCA Blog asked Mr. Ellis about the nature of the comments attributed to him on the Art Hostage blog. This is Mr. Ellis' reply:

I have had absolutely no contact or conversation with Paul Hendry, aka James Walsh the author of "Art Hostage" since his conviction at Lewes Crown Court in September 2010 for offences of benefit fraud and his subsequent imprisonment. For some time before his conviction Hendry had taken to making unsubstantiated claims on the Art Hostage blog supported by quotes of his own invention. He has as a result turned what was initially a responsible and informative blog spot, where he would voluntarily edit and correct inaccuracies if requested to do so, in to an unreliable and unbelievable blog supported by lies, made one can only speculate for the benefit of his own ego.

Mr. Ellis explained that Hendry/Walsh was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and served it in full.

According to Paul "Turbo" Hendry, he 'served three months three weeks in HMP Ford Open Jail; another three months three weeks on electronic tag; then another three months three weeks on probation, reporting to a probation officer once a month, ending August 2011. "The conviction is subject of an ongoing IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) inquiry looking at a cover up by Police," Mr. Hendry wrote in an email. "I pleaded not guilty to the charges/indictments and that is why I was sent to jail. If I had pleaded guilty I would have been fined. The Police refused to reveal the contents of their files in court under a D-notice, Public Immunity Certificate, which would have vindicted me and proved they authorized the Benefit claim back in the year 2000." [Mr. Hendry's comments are from an email to the ARCA blog dated July 12, 2013].

Mr. Ellis teachesArt Policing and Investigation at ARCA's Postgraduate Program in International Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies in Amelia.

Fourteen paintings by Irish artist Michelle Rogers seized by police in a raid of a gallery in Rome two years ago were finally released to the artist in March.

Rogers' paintings were held in police custody when a gallery's inventory was taken as part of a police investigation into tax fraud and money laundering.

"The court believed that the paintings belonged to the gallery owner and my fight over the last two years was to get them to realize that the paintings belonged to me," Rogers explained. "Eventually, after a lot of work by my lawyer and requests from my embassy in Rome, the courts accepted that the art work was mine."

The more than one dozen paintings ranged from 100 x 80 cm to 200 x 300cm.

Michelle Rogers, who also lives part-time in Rome, traveled to Bosnia in 1993 and exhibited works reflecting on the theme of the 9/11 attacks in North America. Lampeudusa, according to her website, "explores the plight and flight of immigrants of Italy."

Four men, including the leader of the gang that conducted the robbery, were arrested in Belgrade and Cacak, according to Prosecutor Radisavljevic;

The police raids this week, planned since 2010, "took place when the suspected robbers decided to take the Cézanne painting to a wealthy Serb who agreed to buy it for (euro) 3.5 million ($4.6 million), according to Interior Minister Dacic.

Police also found $2 million in cash and firearms with the four men, according to Dacic.

Thank you to Marc Balcells, ARCA alum, who noticed the news on recovery of the Degas painting.

April 13, 2012

ARCA (the Association for Research into Crimes against Art)
is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for the year 2012. ARCA
is an international research group that promotes the study of art crime
cultural heritage protection, registered as a 501c3 in the United States and an
Associazione Culturale in Italy.

ARCA presents
four annual awards. Nominations
are made by ARCA staff, trustees, and members of the editorial board of ARCA’s
peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of
Art Crime. The winners are
decided by a vote of the trustees, and are presented at ARCA’s annual
conference, held in Amelia, Italy on June 23 and 24 of this year. For more
information about ARCA or to attend its annual conference, please contact Lynda
Albertson: lynda.albertson (at) artcrimeresearch.org.

Dr. Abungu, a
native of Kenya, has served as Chairman of the International Standing Committee
on the Traffic of Illicit Antiquities since 1999, and as Director-General of
the National Museums of Kenya from 1999-2002. Among his many projects, he was involved in the return to
Kenya of looted Vigango (grave markers).

Dr.
Abungu has over 60 publications in the disciplines of archaeology, heritage management,
and museology, culture and development and has championed the role of the arts
and its respect and protection in many of his publications, public forums and
in his works as a museum professional, scholar and administrator.

He
has been an advisor to the Aluka project of the Mellon Foundation, the Global
Heritage Fund, and is Vice President of International Council of Museums
(ICOM), a Member of the International Jury of the UNESCO Melina Mecouri
International Prize for Safeguard and Management of Cultural Landscapes and
Board member for TARA, the Trust for African Rock Art, among others. He has sat
on the World Monuments Watch panel and was Kenya’s Representative to the UNESCO
World Heritage Committee, and Vice-President of its Bureau (2004-2009).

He
is awarded for his long-term efforts to secure the cultural heritage of Kenya
and other African nations.

According to the BBC, police arrested three people in Belgrade and Cacak.

The blog, Eastern European Forum, has a simple English translation of the information in Sebia's daily Blic: "The operation was organized by the Service for the Fight Against Organized Crime (SBPOK) and the Organized Crime Prosecution. The Serbian police cooperated with their colleagues from several states and the operation was prepared for several months."

Cézanne's Le Garçon au gilet rouge measures 79.5 by 64 centimeters. Emil Bührle, a German-born industrialist who sold arms to the Nazis during World War II, purchased the oil on canvas for 400,000 Swiss Francs in 1948. It is now estimated to be worth more than $100 million.

If you would like to read more about recovering stolen art in Serbia ....

In October 2011, former Scotland Yard Detective Richard Ellis recovered two Picasso paintings in Serbia that had been stolen from Switzerland in 2008.

Sandy Nairne, author of Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, discusses the Serbian underworld with The Independent's Mathew Bell in July 2011. More information about Nairne's book can be found on the ARCA blog here and here.

The story appears to have originated with journalist Tamara Markovic Subota of Serbia's Blic, a daily newspaper. According to the translation by Google here, the three arrested were Serbian nationals and part of organized crime -- a fourth accomplice was arrested for trafficking in firearms.

ARCA (the Association for Research into Crimes against Art)
is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for the year 2012. ARCA
is an international research group that promotes the study of art crime
cultural heritage protection, registered as a 501c3 in the United States and an
Associazione Culturale in Italy.

ARCA presents
four annual awards. Nominations
are made by ARCA staff, trustees, and members of the editorial board of ARCA’s
peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of
Art Crime. The winners are
decided by a vote of the trustees, and are presented at ARCA’s annual
conference, held in Amelia, Italy on June 23 and 24 of this year. For more
information about ARCA or to attend its annual conference, please contact Lynda
Albertson: lynda.albertson (at) artcrimeresearch.org.

Mr. Felch and
Mr. Frammolino are award-winning investigative journalists with the Los Angeles Times newspaper, and
co-authors of a book based on their columns, entitled Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s
Richest Museum (2011).

Ralph
Frammolino is a veteran journalist who worked at American newspapers for 30
years. He spent 25 of those at the Los
Angeles Times, where he covered a variety of beats but mostly concentrated
in investigative projects for the Metro staff. His work has been honored by the
Associated Press of Texas, Dartmouth University Business School and the Los
Angeles Press Club. He was part of the staff effort that won a Pulitzer Prize
in 1994 for the coverage of the Northridge Earthquake, and was a co-finalist
for a Pulitzer in 2006 for his coverage of the J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities
scandal. Since leaving the LA Times
in 2008, Mr. Frammolino has been working in South Asia as a teacher, journalism
trainer and media development consultant with USAID, the World Bank and other
foreign aid donors. He continues to freelance and his stories have appeared in The New York Times, New York Post, LA Times,
Columbia Journalism Review and, most recently, Smithsonian Magazine.

Felch
and Frammolino are jointly awarded for their outstanding research and scholarship
that informed both their investigative articles for the Los Angeles Times and their book, Chasing Aphrodite.

ARCA (the Association for Research into Crimes against Art)
is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for the year 2012. ARCA
is an international research group that promotes the study of art crime
cultural heritage protection, registered as a 501c3 in the United States and an
Associazione Culturale in Italy.

ARCA presents
four annual awards. Nominations
are made by ARCA staff, trustees, and members of the editorial board of ARCA’s
peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of
Art Crime. The winners are
decided by a vote of the trustees, and are presented at ARCA’s annual
conference, held in Amelia, Italy on June 23 and 24 of this year. For more
information about ARCA or to attend its annual conference, please contact Lynda
Albertson: lynda.albertson (at) artcrimeresearch.org.

Habsburg
is a former member of the European Parliament for Austria, and has specialized
in International Humanitarian Law and Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection.
A former air force pilot, he still serves in the reserve of the Austrian armed
forces as a key Cultural Property Protection Officer. He is vice president of
the Austrian Society for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and a founder of
Blue Shield Austria. In addition to being a frequent lecturer, he is an author
of several publications on the subject of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Protection and Military Cultural Property Protection and has carried out
multiple documentation missions in conflict zones.

When Poland held the European Union (EU) Presidency in the second half of 2011, Art Crime formed one of their priorities in the field of police cooperation. Among other things, this resulted in Council Conclusions on preventing and combating crime against cultural goods, which were adopted by the EU Council on 13 December 2011.

The Polish Presidency coordinated efforts in the Law Enforcement Working Group of the EU Council to collect statistics on Art Crime and the law enforcement responses on Art Crime in different EU member states. The table below shows some of the data collected, i.e. the number of offences between 2007 and 2010 as recorded in 20 of the 27 EU member states. The exact definitions of 'Art Crime offences' of course differ between the EU member states, but the data does give some insight in the trends. Additionally, these data have not been previously collected and published together.

Number of Art Crime offences 2007-2010 in 20 European Union Member States: